Men and Gods

I remember once being asked why I thought Akira was such a great movie, and while the groundbreaking animation and extreme violence certainly made it an influential film to this day, that all has to take a back seat to the central idea it posed: What if men were actually able to create a god?

I suppose before anything else, one should ask: What is it that makes someone or something a god? A being that doesn't die of old age seems to one criteria, though the word immortal probably addresses this more specifically (and you certainly seem to see a lot of immortals in comics, movies and TV shows making claims of godhood). It would seem that wielding immense amounts of power would be a prerequisite as well, though just what kind of power we're talking about would get called into question. Past kings, pharoahs, and emperors wielded incredible power, and some were considered gods by their subjects, though nowadays most probably would not since that power generally was derived from military might based on wealth or sometimes even just claims of divine right alone. If we're talking about physical power and ability than are strongmen like Arnold Schwarznegger or athletes Barry Bonds gods?

A lot of modern, monotheistic religions seem to pile on the things their gods can do: they are undying, everywhere, everyone, everything, are all-powerful, can see everything before it happens and if they want to, can change whatever they want whenever they want (although they generally, just... don't) and that's why they're the greatest and all the other gods bow down to them. But I think when it comes to the generic, general-use sense of the word, a "god" is best described as a being who lives for an extremely long time, and has incredible powers or abilities (when compared to a normal human being of course). The gods depicted by the ancient Greeks like Apollo, Hermes, and Zeus, readily come to mind as convenient examples but what's strange is that almost every ancient civilization and culture really seems to have had a similar concept of multiple gods championing different, various things (god of love, god of war, god agriculture). The Mesopotamians had Ishtar, the Indians have Shiva and Vishnu, the Japanese had Amataseru, etc... Moreover, different localities and territories used to champion different gods hoping they'd be favored over their neighbors in things like harvests, trade, warfare, and basically every other type of competition they had with those neighbors. Those who were more successful than others (or "favored by the gods" they'd probably put it) were able spread the worship of their gods around, while the gods of those who had smaller harvests, lost at military endeavors, or were simply less successful, fell by the wayside. While all this seems on one hand to lead to a giant "My god can beat up yours" sort of situation, I sometimes wonder what'd it be like if such gods actually existed, lived with their worhipers/subjects and provided leadership for them.

I used to like asking people, "If you were a god, what kind would you be? Would you be the type who was benevolent and generous to their people, or the kind who was vengeful and cruel?" Kind of a fun question, I got a lot of different answers, but thinking on it all again, I have to wonder if it's the addition of a human element that makes it interesting. Is a human that possesses incredible powers and has obtained immortality really a god? Or are they just a human you fear enough to obey and even worship if they're demanding it?

I have to admit, the gods of the ancient Greeks seemed pretty human when it came right down to it. They were constantly changing into animals, running wild enjoying themselves, taking mortal lovers at a whim to satisfy their own lusts (often leaving their baseborn, half-breed children to become lesser gods), and punishing arbitrarily any they felt had insulted them (occasionally raizing whole cities or even kingdoms in the process).

Most religious people would say that gods created men. Non-believers would say that men created gods. But a theological discussion is not what I'm aiming at and so while the latter of these two is most certainly meant figuratively (that men created gods within their own minds and imaginations), I have to wonder what if men, now wielding modern science were literally able to create a god?

The anime "Akira" explored this concept in an interesting way. In this story, scientists attempting to bestow humans with advanced psychic powers, succeeded in doing so, giving several test subjects just that, albeit with varying degrees of success. One of the subjects, a young boy named Akira (in this story, the young it seemed, were able to wield this new ability with much greater ease) attained such a high level of power, that he destroyed Tokyo by accident. Unsure of what exactly happened or if he still existed, but having heard he had great power, small parts of the populice had actually began to worship him as a god, forming cults, and prophesizing that he'd return someday. Although it is all just a story, I don't think it's entirely unrealistic to believe scientists might actually research this, or that if they succeeded, people would react by deifying a test subject for that matter. And though ostensibly the scientists of this story were experimenting with increasing human ability, one can't help but wonder if what is secretly desired by such a thing is the creation of a god. Is man's desire for a real, physical god truly so great that he'd one day seek to actually make one? Perhaps more telling than all of this even, however, is the reality that confronts the scientists of our story when they actually succeed...

If a "god" really is nothing more than a human with incredible powers who commands fear and awe in others and demands obedience and worship, then one should certainly hope that anybody who obtains such power would on some level or another be a "good" and benevolent person. The reality of power such as this, is that anyone who has it could simply do whatever they want.

The newest "god" in Akira was Tetsuo, a troubled, angry adolescent who gains his powers from experimental drugs scientists working for the government give him, and up until about a few days before the story begins, was a member in a violent biker gang. Along with his powers, he also gains a nearly constant splitting headache, a side-effect of the drugs. How's that for a candidate in a new god? He was troubled, angry and a bit violent before, now he has immense power and a constant headache making him more or less always pissed off. The scenes of him running amok, marching on downtown Neo-Tokyo, causing massive destruction and killing countless bystanders while he fights the army single-handed can be a pretty churning experience the first time you see. It also begs the question: Even if the person possessing godlike power genuinely wanted to do good, what's the likelihood that they at some point or another would simply get mad, find themselves in a bad mood, and destroy someone or something in their anger? Perhaps for the the sake of speeding up the plot, Tetsuo suffered from unending migraines and was more or less always ready to snap, but regardless, a being possessing untold amounts of power is not someone you'd want to see the angry side of. Imagine if your ruler was a god who lived amoung you and your fellow subjects in a city, and one day got angry and simply butchered everyone who happened to be in the main city square at the time.

Another work which examined the idea of godhood in an interesting and realistic way was "The Watchmen", specifically through the character of Dr. Manhattan. True to the form of many characters in comics, Dr. Manhattan is the type of person who decides to do everything he can to help out civilization after obtaining god-like powers. He creates a cheap, efficient, easy source of renewable energy, does his best to keep peace, devotes much of his time to further research. Yet, after a time two things become apparent to him. First, that his powers and wisdom have isolated him from other human beings who regard him with a mixture of not only admiration and awe, but also envy and suspicion. Second, that for all the good he's tried to achieve and succeeded at, many people still suffer and others are ungrateful for what they receive after they become used to it. For all his benevolence, the people turn on him at one point with blame and accusation. Unlike Tetsuo, however, Dr. Manhattan flees rather than hurt others, but this leaves humanity to its own devices of war and destruction, particularly as a power vacuum has opened in his absence.

They say being the boss isn't all it's cracked up to be. There are responsibilities and duties to go along with the power. And if godhood implies not only immortality but also leadership, then hmm... What have we gotten ourselves into here? An eternity full of responsibility, listening to endless complaints, and constantly fixing the problems of people who are only human? How tiresome... Perhaps godhood, as well, really wouldn't be all it's cracked up to be either. One has to wonder if that's why the ancient Greek gods took little or no responsibility in running things even in the cities that bore their names, and instead were always out and about enjoying themselves.

Getting back to the question earlier, "What kind of god would you be?", imagine for a second if anyone one of your friends, co-workers, or just anyone you knew suddenly became a god, and what would they do? Would we all suddenly have a stable renewable, energy source, or would the streets be running red with blood? It's been often said that no man was ever meant to have the powers of gods, and perhaps with good reason. In the beginning we'd say that in the wrong hands it could be disasterous. Thinking only a little further we'd have to ask "Exactly whose hands are the right ones at all?" History is littered with cases of kings, emperors, and dictators, all men with too much power, absolutely abusing those they rule. Considering their power all comes from their legions of followers, how scary would a real-life, living god be? A being like that wouldn't even need legions of followers to commit horrible acts, but would still have them anyways because people would fall in line from fear or just a desire to try and curry favor. Throughout the ages and all the way up to the present, people have fought for equal rights for all of mankind. Is a god really what humanity wants at all?